


your eyes are like starlight now

by sameboots



Series: The 'Kiss Me' Series [3]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Banter, Christmas Party, F/M, First Kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-06-26 02:23:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19758652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sameboots/pseuds/sameboots
Summary: The office Christmas party first kiss AU.--“I don’t believe that’s any of your business, Mr. Lannister.”She was mad now. He leveled her with a stare, waiting for her to give something away. He didn’t know why it mattered to him so much. Well, no. He did know why. He just didn’t want to admit it to himself.It took Jaime too long before he looked away from her. He shuffled the paper on his desk and said, “That will be all, Miss Tarth.”Brienne left without another word.





	your eyes are like starlight now

**Author's Note:**

> Third installment of the First Kiss series. This was, originally, intended to be a 1950s, almost Mad Men-esque story. But then I got lazy and had a vision in my head of what I wanted Brienne's dress to be. So now it's an amorphous time period where her dress would exist. 
> 
> This is unbeta'd, so please excuse any glaring errors.
> 
> AND OH! I have been meaning to mention this for like six stories now: I am[ agirlnamedkeith ](https://agirlnamedkeith.tumblr.com/)on tumblr! If you want one-shots that aren't worthy of "publishing" here, or just snippets of my current WIPs (there are two!), then please follow me there. Or if you just want to experience the glory of my Nikolaj Coster-Waldau tag "it's weird to be a lesbian when he exists tbh".

The first time Jaime Lannister set eyes on Brienne Tarth, he looked her up and down and simply said, “I thought secretaries were supposed to be attractive.”

The blonde, giant of a woman bristled and flushed bright red with anger before simply saying, “I’m the new ad exec, not a _secretary_.”

“Ah, good,” he replied absently, looking back down at the contract in front of him. “We can’t have you scaring off the clients.”

When she didn’t walk out of his office, he glanced back up at her and said, “You’re dismissed.”

And thus began the most contemptuous, infuriating, enticing relationship of Jaime Lannister’s life.

\--

Brienne quickly proved herself to be the best ad exec in the entire company, never mind the best junior level one. She was not, however, quick to forgive Jaime for their first meeting. 

Oh, she was polite to him, even if she insisted on calling him ‘Mr. Lannister’ no matter how many times he insisted it was his father’s name. Then again, she was polite to literally everyone except Ron Connington. Jaime knew there was a story there, but he couldn’t get any of his employees to fess up, and he wasn’t about to start bribing people for a bit of office gossip. 

But even through the thin veneer of politeness, he could see how she bristled every time he was near. 

It was an unfortunate trait that Jaime couldn’t help but poke at that spark of ire until it flamed into wildfire. He’s not sure at what point she became his favorite person. His weekends became dull, half the time, he couldn’t stop thinking about Monday morning and how early in the day he could get her to take the bait. 

It wasn’t until two weeks before the Christmas holidays that Jaime was clotheslined by the realization that he might be, maybe, just possibly was deeply, deeply attracted to the beastly blonde. 

“Miss Tarth!” Jaime called across the office. Her head whipped around, her cheeks flushed and eyes flashing with anger. She hated it when he summoned her in front of everyone. “My office, now.” 

Brienne glared at him the whole walk to his office. He stayed in the doorway so that she had to brush past him, her body barely skimming his. He couldn’t help but smirk for a moment before forcing a cool and calm expression. 

Jaime made a show of sitting at his desk, leaning back in the chair to look up at her. He gestured to the chair across from him. Brienne complied, albeit unhappily. He steepled his fingers and regarded her, forming the perfect opening strike. She didn’t give him the chance. 

“Mr. Lannister, I’m quite busy.” Her hands were properly folded in her lap, shoulders back, chin high, proud as always. “If we could please finish this meeting quickly, I would appreciate it.”

Jaime smiled. It was even better when her impatience did his job for him. 

“Of course, Miss Tarth.” He leaned forward, elbows braced on his desktop. “Are you coming to the office Christmas party?” 

He was fairly certain nothing else could have surprised Brienne more than that question. Her eyebrows flew up, mouth parting in a soft ‘o’ of surprise. The expression was fleeting, replaced by a sort of ire that usually took him more than one sentence to achieve. 

“Is that why you --” Brienne took a sharp breath through her nose. “You know that everyone assumes I’m in here for the dressing down of the century, with the way you yelled at me.”

Jaime merely raised an eyebrow at her wording. He waited for the angry flush to spread down her neck and disappear into the neckline of her blouse. It didn’t take long. 

“I didn’t realize the office was prone to such --”

“You absolutely know what I meant,” she cut him off sharply. 

“You still haven’t answered my question.” 

It was all part of their verbal sparring. It felt like a sword fight, strikes and feints and parries, the endorphin rush of infuriating her was as good as any exercise. 

“Yes,” she said curtly. 

“Alone?” Jaime asked, heart thumping in his chest, far harder than he was comfortable with. 

“I don’t believe that’s any of your business, Mr. Lannister.” 

She was mad now. He leveled her with a stare, waiting for her to give something away. He didn’t know why it mattered to him so much. Well, no. He did know why. He just didn’t want to admit it to himself. 

It took Jaime too long before he looked away from her. He shuffled the paper on his desk and said, “That will be all, Miss Tarth.”

Brienne left without another word. 

\--

The Lannister Corp. Christmas party was, generally speaking, the sort of stiff affair expected of a large, wealthy company. Small canapes were passed by waiters in tuxedos, flutes of champagne sipped at while everyone stood around making small talk with coworkers they had to see every day as it was, and spouses that had no interest in meeting them. 

Jaime hated it. He schmoozed with the best of them, but it was like having all of his teeth pulled with no pain medication.

He was drifting to the bar, desperately in need of something stronger than champagne when he caught sight of her and stopped in his tracks. 

Brienne. 

Well, he was pretty sure it was Brienne. 

The statuesque woman moving through the crowd was at least a head taller than anyone else, but her blonde hair was curled in soft waves around her shoulders. She had on a black silk dress that skimmed along her long body, a shocking amount of her back exposed when she turned around. His mouth went dry as his eyes traced the long column of her spine to where the silk finally met just above the small of her back. 

It was then he noticed the mousy man hanging on her arm. He was shorter than Jaime, with a face that was neither handsome nor plain, a physique that wasn’t worth commenting on, and a suit that looked off the rack. He was a non-entity and didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as Brienne, and yet, he was her date. 

Jaime watched as Ron Connington intercepted them, Brienne’s date giving him a smile and a handshake. He could see Ron looking -- satisfied, maybe. About what, he couldn’t imagine as Brienne looked steadily more uncomfortable until she made some apology to Hyle, gave Ron a tight smile and made her way swiftly to the bar. 

“So.” Brienne jumped at the sound of his voice. He slid in beside her. “Manhattan, up,” he told the bartender who placed a glass of white wine in front of Brienne. Jaime leaned on his elbow facing her. “You did have a date.” 

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Obviously.”

“You seem to have a mutual friend.” Jaime nodded over to where Hyle and Ron were still animatedly chatting. Brienne glanced over and then sharply back to her drink. 

“We all went to school together,” she offered, her voice tight and clipped. 

“You went to school with Connington?” 

“That _is_ what I just said.”

Jaime didn’t know why it bothered him. It felt like something he should know about her. 

“Is that why he’s the one person in the office you can’t even fake politeness for?”

Brienne looked him in the eye then, a tightness in her mouth and around her eyes that made him long to reach out to her. She opened her mouth for a moment as if to explain whatever it was that put that expression on her face. She looked away from him before saying, “It was a long time ago.”

“Clearly it must have been horrible if it still puts that look on your face.”

Without a word of warning, Brienne spun around and took off for the door. Jaime trailed after her like a dog. 

“Brienne!” he called out over the din of the party. She didn’t stop and he had to all but jog to catch up with her. He touched her arm to halt her right before she walked out of the building. She jerked away from him as if burned, looking at him like a wounded animal. “I think I owe you an apology.”

“It was a long time ago,” she repeated quietly. 

Jaime wanted to argue with her. He wanted her to confess to him, to tell him how to fix it so she was her glaring, mulish jawed self instead of this fragile-looking creature he’d never seen before. He stepped closer to her, still a respectable distance if anyone was watching, but dropped his voice to say, “Do you need to leave?” She shook her head vigorously. “I don’t mind making your excuses.”

“That won’t be necessary, Mr. Lannister.”

He flinched. “How many times do I have to tell you, Brienne?” She blinked at him. “My name is Jaime.”

Brienne really looked at him then, the tightness around her eyes softened into something that stole his breath. She took a deep breath. Her lips trembled just so as she whispered, “Jaime.” 

Jaime kissed her. It was an idiotic, inappropriate move. Brienne stiffened immediately, her mouth a firm, unyielding line against his own. He jerked away, an apology already on his lips, but the look in her eyes stopped him. He gazed up at her, the heels she must be wearing making her even taller than him. Something determined replaced the shaken surprise, her hands wrapped in his lapels and jerked him against her. Brienne’s mouth slanted over his, kissing him deeply, licking his bottom lip until he opened to her, their tongues tangling with each other. The kiss was as familiar as it was unexpected, their lips and tongues battling as they normally did with words alone. His hands were around her waist, pulling her in, and she was crumpling his carefully pressed jacket in her fists. 

When he finally pulled away, he was sure his mouth was just as swollen and red as her own. His eyes felt just as wide as hers, though not half as beautiful, he knew. 

“I’ve wanted to do that for months,” he said with a sigh of relief. 

“Wha --”

But Jaime didn’t let her finish, cutting her off with another kiss she _enthusiastically_ returned. 


End file.
